STRATEGY : a grand word, an important part, and achievable for all

A word and topic that is at times misunderstood, feared, overused & conflated with tactics, and land-grabbed by gatekeepers wishing to co-opt it as their world. But you can do a simple strategy today.

Oxford Dictionary definition

Firstly, Happy New year. I know I am pushing the window for that at this point. But having had a false start to the year myself which word count limits won’t allow (TLDR : illness, erratic travel plans, tight client deadlines, family medical emergency etc.), it has been all over the place.

So I have decided that 2025 starts TODAY.

Also, I have to say it (sorry) Happy 3rd Birthday to Front of Mind.

Somehow this little portal to enable me to write something each month of hopeful value to readers and to selfishly help keep me focussed / on the sharp end continues. Although I don’t have infinite things to share, there is definitely enough for a few more key elements to discuss. So thanks for your ongoing readership and support.

As many of you parent shoppers will know, Aged 3+ is the watershed age where the toys get interesting. new cars, jigsaws, and such. Having spent lots of time agonising on what to get my nephew and niece over Christmas, I can attest to this (former is now 5, that’s a whole new level of great toys, ones that I can unselfishly enjoy too!)

So with that in mind, it is a chance to discuss a growing up topic for growing up businesses and brands. Strategy! I won’t be able to squeeze into one post how to become a full strategist, or even go into nearly enough nuts and bolts of the requisite areas, but I want to help define it, and at least get you started on getting it into your marketing and make it actionable.

First up, what Strategy Isn’t

It is touted a lot, ‘we have a strategy’. Often conflated with a tactic, e.g. you have a content calendar for Instagram. That is a channel plan at best. Strategy isn’t tactics.

I also hear strategies that want to do everything, with loads of ideas. which is obviously unrealistic. Strategy isn’t doing everything. Strategy isn’t chaos.

I see it on a page, in nice boxes and frameworks, or too many words. Strategy is not something that can only live on a page.

As you can see, and no doubt have experienced, it has become a word that is popular to use, as it potentially adds gravitas to communicating a thing you will do, an intention, an idea. But its overuse conflates what it is, being pedantic.

To upfront this, I am also not a pure strategist. There are many who are way more into it and most definitely more experienced than I. But also, there’s a lot of snobbery and arrogance in the subject, including interdisciplinary debates as old as time on brand versus marketing etc. I am a marketer who has done lots of strategy, planning, client leadership, media, innovation, training, budgeting. It is part of the toolkit for rounded marketers, but important to grasp as a starting point. But I do know what it is/isn’t and why it is important. and if I do, you probably do as part of your toolkit too!

What Strategy Is

‘A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim’

…is your Oxford Dictionary’s take. Plan of action part could be in isolation conflated with planning/tactics, but the clue is in the ‘long term’ and ‘overall aim’. Not getting in the weeds/lost in the jar/[insert other short-sighted analogies here].

With that in mind, Strategy is focus and direction of travel for a business, (or within which, a marketing plan) to have overall aim, including an objective, and comprising parts to achieve it. And per the previous section, deciding what not to do. Strategy is decisions.

Strategy is informed, but not a guarantee. It is based on research/evidence/experience and a decision. Barack Obama spoke of getting to 51%, and his stakes couldn’t have been higher. So if you have seen historically who buys your product, or cadences of seasonality, it is a sure-fire bet that you can plan those audiences and timings, amending budget/comms accordingly.

Strategy is multi-layered. For example everyone agrees that every business/brand, needs and overall business strategy. This is interdisciplinary and transcends our own marketing interest. So it could be a focus on growing in a new territory, or doubling the headcount, or reducing profit, or developing a new smaller product.

There is brand strategy, and marketing strategy. Brand-ing is arguably a marketing function, whereas brand is a governed thing that includes some visuals but is the overall position/segmentation/product and what the buyers know/feel etc.

Without getting into semantics further, let’s talk marketing strategy.

So, where to start with a marketing strategy (example)

So let us assume 3 things as this point, if you are having to get involved in any of the following, there is likely more work to do and you are more in chaotic/startup/GTM strategy territory :

1. There is a clear business strategy (e.g growth/penetration, new product/market)

2. There is a clear brand strategy/identity (e.g. rules/themes/tones/position/personas)

3. There is a clear product portfolio/strategy (e.g. on site, in store, price points etc.)

You know that marketing covers the 4Ps Inc Product/Price/Place, which is why we care right now and a strategy should consider all (albeit maybe not affecting all). And marketing’s overall objective as a business function is to increase odds for sales and growth, albeit through product fit, positioning, communications and more.

You/your business then understands the market, the competition, the audiences who buy your product as a stand still. (.e.g 3Cs of company, customers and competition) But it is still worth doing initial research, to hopefully gain insight, or at worst, validate business thinking and existing approach. Maybe there is more research, more surveys, interrogating customer data and reading about the economy or at least the emerging nature of what competitors are doing for your target buyers. Insights are the golden nugget, but not always achievable, just don’t confuse data and insights. Insights change course, data usually just validates.

So start with acknowledgement - very important step to show the workings, rationalise the approach and showcase your understanding of the situation to stakeholders, particularly clients, CEOs, or CFOS. You have looked at the overlap of your unique product/benefit, versus other market forces and versus what you do not do / can’t do. You have worked out the slice of the pizza to focus on. That is your thing. here is an example of the neurodiversity initiative I co-founded, taking into account the opportunity as well as wider/our own restrictions…

It is then sharing it in a cogent, simple way. Because it is important that all stakeholders have an MVP knowledge for it to work, and each dept can deep-dive from there.At the core of it may be a Get, To, Buy structure. e.g.
‘GET (your audience) TO (call to action) BY (the delivering the plan you intend on)’

So you know who you are selling, what you want them to do, and your intention to do so. albeit brand awareness or something else. e.g :

Then - make the understandable practical and actionable - we don’t want this just sitting pretty on a slide. Like any strategy delivered/discussed/agreed, you want an end card that it is clear/low enough a denomination that all stakeholders can understand and action Now it is about execution. Creative delivery, or perhaps an implementational media plan. I create what I call an Ace of Spades Card for clients. I won’t share this one for free, but essentially it is a one page where we show how the strategy plugs into big biz goal at the top, and the plan underneath of how e.g. media or creative.

Within the downstream media channel strategy they should mirror the overall marketing strategy. A working example could be, Brand A wants to disrupt market leader and conquer market share and raise awareness, therefore the PPC Search strategy may be to bid on competitor terms. Or Brand X wants to maintain market leadership, it may be a case of PPC ensuring maintaining position 1.

On that note. if you are going to do a media strategy or creative strategy, they are subsets of a marketing strategy, and of course should sync tightly with each other (never do creative and media separate/without upstream alignment at least, worst case it’ll be mixed and chaotic, best case you’ll miss out on some great media innovation opportunities!)

Final thought/Summary

Like I said, I was always going to get to this point and feel bereft; that I have not gone into nearly enough detail and feels surface, as this is many year’s work. As non-exhaustive as this is (deciding what not to do a key tenet), I hope I have been able to at least kickstart thoughts / rails / definitions and perhaps inspiration of what to do / how to do it. It is good to have overall governed business strategy, dovetailing into marketing, brand, channel etc. In reality I know it is complex with different fires going off, but at worst you should have a governing philosophy that syncs all up so the same intended direction is being headed in by all. All sitting down cross stakeholders a great starting point.

(Quick/shameless Plug : I do 1-2 day workshops for project and retained clients where we go through strategy parts in way more detail and start to build one together, If you are interested in such an engagement or similar please drop details here. I can also signpost to other educational resources, strategy trainers on request too!)

Another final point. Strategy isn’t set in stone, and should evolve with your business and growth. It is a framework/intention/direction based on what needs to be done armed with evidence/research at that moment in time and for the near-mid future. But should not be rigidly treated with dogma in perpetuity. Depending on the cadence / business / macro-environment, great strategy is being adaptive, maintaining curiosity, listening to customers and the market, and if need be, adapting over time. The best marketing businesses have a culture of strategy from top to bottom, marketers or not, bought into the same goals. But you have to start somewhere, pick a lane, create a strategy. An OK strategy is almost always better better than not having one at all!

SA

P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, personally or on my company page. If you want to discuss anything, you need some marketing advice, or you just want to discuss something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!